


our best days are yet unknown

by castelia



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Bad Flirting, Bisexual Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), M/M, Pansexual Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Post-Season/Series 01, Pre-Canon, idiots to lovers, starring two oblivious dorks, title's from the edge of great
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:13:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28364460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castelia/pseuds/castelia
Summary: Reggie grins. Unlike his hair, his teeth aren’t perfect. They’re slightly, endearingly crooked.
Relationships: Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 185





	our best days are yet unknown

It’s a good day at rehearsal. They’re all at peak performance (yes, even you, Alex, stop being so modest) and it makes Luke feel like he’s on top of the world.

It’s no secret that he loves music, all the boys do, but something that Luke especially feels is the need to share it with the world. To share the feeling music gives him, to touch other people’s hearts and make a difference in their day, maybe even their lives. That’s Luke’s dream. If their performances are as good as this rehearsal, he hopes he’ll be able to achieve it.

“Alright, boys, let’s take a break,” he says, when it’s clear they’re all tired. It’s the middle of summer and it’s more difficult to practise in the unforgiving heat.

“I think we still have some popsicles,” Bobby offers. “I’ll go check the freezer.”

“Oh, thank god, I feel like I’m gonna melt,” Reggie says melodramatically, but Alex and Luke are filled with relief, too.

Bobby leaves while the others put their instruments down. Luke considers them. They’re all tired and sweaty, but Reggie in particular looks like someone held him down, punched dark circles under his eyes, pulled him back to his feet and fixed his hair.

Luke feels a sympathetic tug at his heart, knowing the reason for it is probably Reggie’s bad home life. Not that he will say much on the subject, but they all know.

“Hey, let’s go to the pool when Bobby gets back, cool down,” he suggests.

“Don’t have faith in the popsicles?” Alex asks wryly.

“Well, I wouldn’t want Reggie to melt.”

Reggie grins. Unlike his hair, his teeth aren’t perfect. They’re slightly, endearingly crooked.

Alex’s eyes narrow and Luke quickly averts his gaze after having been caught staring.

“Okay, so we don’t have any more popsicles left,” Bobby announces when he returns.

“Perfect, we’re going to the pool and they sell ice cream there,” Reggie says, already up. “Let’s go!”

* * *

The water is refreshingly cool. Luke, Alex and Reggie get into a water fight while Bobby flirts with girls tanning on the grassy field next to the pool. It’s the perfect place to unwind after band rehearsal.

“I think I win,” Luke says with a grin when Alex and Reggie surface, spitting out a long stream of water. Alex purposefully aims it at Luke’s face. He avoids it. “Someone’s a sore loser.”

“Alright, I give,” Reggie says, before offering his hand.

Still, grinning Luke takes it. “At least one of you knows when to admit defe— _whoa_!”

Reggie uses the grip to drag him underwater, shoving his head under the surface until he lets him come up for breath.

“ _I think_ you spoke a little too soon,” Alex says smugly.

But Luke’s a little distracted by how efffortlessly Reggie had pulled him under. Seriously, has he always been that strong or was it just easy because Luke was taken aback or both—

Alex. Is staring at him.

“Yeah, whatever,” Luke laughs it off a little forcefully. Alex’s eyes narrow again.

Reggie, oblivious to their silent stand-off, winces when he catches one of Bobby’s pick-up lines. “Oh, man, that was terrible, even for him.”

“Like you’re any better of a flirt,” Alex says.

“Like _you_ are.”

“Okay,” Luke laughs. “We’re all bad at flirting, glad we established that.”

They get out of the pool to buy ice cream as planned, hauling an ungrateful Bobby away to save him from himself. Impatiently, they wait in line.

It’s not like this is the first time Luke has seen Reggie shirtless, but there’s something uncomfortable about it, especially now with the dark cirlces under his eyes. His ribs cut against his skin in a way that just isn’t healthy. Luke decides to buy lots of ice cream because his friend could really use it.

Bobby’s favorite is the chocolate flavor, Alex likes vanilla, Luke buys mint chocolate chip and Reggie goes for stracciatella.

“You both have chocolate chips in your ice cream,” Alex observes when they’re eating their cold deliciousness.

“Huh?” Reggie blinks at him, before realizing. “Oh, yeah, we do, that’s funny.”

“It’s a good match,” Alex continues. It’s the LA heat, Luke tells himself when he feels his cheeks getting warmer. “…The ice cream, I mean.”

“Funny,” Luke says, his voice high-pitched for some reason.

* * *

Luke is lying on the back of Alex’s bedroom and talking about whatever’s on his mind, from new songs by other artists to new lyrics he came up with. He lets his mind wander while Alex catches up on the homework he missed when he was home sick, occasionally asking Luke who already did it for an answer when the question’s too tough.

“Luke,” Alex interrupts. “I’m trying to do calculus, and your crush isn’t helping me focus on equations.”

He gets up from the floor in shock, his arms flailing. “What?!”

“Do you even hear yourself?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he insists.

Alex clears his throat and does his best Luke impresssion. It rudely consists of a higher voice. “I’m an oblivious idiot with a crush on Reggie and I’m writing a song about it.”

Luke defends hotly, “The song’s about crooked teeth—and—and—“ Oh, man, it really is about Reggie, Luke realizes when he mentally shifts through the rest of the lyrics.

Alex is unimpressed. “ _Dude_.”

“I don’t have a crush on him! I can’t!” Luke says a little desperately. “I like girls!”

 _And so does Reggie_ , his traitorous mind whispers to him. So even if there was a crush, which is definitely not a fact and just a figment of poor, sweet Alex’s imagination, there would be no chance at all. And the crushing feeling in Luke’s chest is just his body working through his big lunch.

“I think you can like both,” Alex says gently, before his voice gets a little defensive. “And there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“So…you don’t think it’s weird?” Luke ventures. “A boy liking a boy?”

Now it’s Alex who has gone red. “N-No, I don’t think… I mean—“

“Cool,” Luke interrupts with a smile, recognizing the signs of Alex starting to panic. He gets a relieved smile.

Luke has a suspicion about Alex, but he knows he’ll tell him when he’s ready.

* * *

He wakes up in the middle of the night, panicking about the fact that it’s always Reggie who comes over to share the mic with him, and _what does it all_ _mean_ before he goes back to sleep, refusing to think about it any further.

* * *

High school is good, because it’s where everything makes sense. It’s where a cheerleader called Jenny says she likes a guy who can play guitar and it’s where she kisses him, under the bleachers.

It’s where he gets dumped three weeks later for a jock because high school makes sense and it’s cruel.

He spends days moping and sighing around Reggie, because Alex and Bobby got fed up with him pretty quickly, but eventually, he reaches Reggie’s limit, too.

“Get up,” he says, pulling Luke up from where he’s lying facedown on Reggie’s bedroom floor. Good thing Reggie’s parents aren’t home. “This is ridiculous.”

Luke sniffs loudly. Reggie makes a face before he manhandles him onto his bed. Where Luke proceeds to lie facedown again, his hands finding discarded flannel.

The flannel smells so _nice_. So much like Reggie—warm, earthy and reassuring.

Luke turns and finds out that the other boy left him to mope alone which just sucks because moping is even worse when you’re alone.

“You still here or have you become a puddle of your own tears?” Standing in the doorway, Reggie’s face scrunches up in a way that is not allowed to be that adorable. “I hope not, that’d suck to clean out of my sheets.”

“Jerk.” There’s a new, sweeter smell. Luke sits up. “Is that ice cream?”

He shrugs and approaches, giving Luke the tub and a spoon.

“It’s breakup ice cream,” Reggie says. “When Holly broke up with me, Bobby told me to eat a whole tub of ice cream by myself. He said it might make you feel better, too.”

Luke is going to murder Bobby but also hug him because it’s obvious he tried to get some more weight on skinny Reggie and then he’s going to hug Reggie for being so sweet but Luke won’t do any of those things before he eats himself some breakup ice cream.

“I rescind my jerk comment.”

“Ooh, fancy word.”

“I’ve been studying.”

Breakup ice cream, Luke finds out, is _delicious_. “Why’s it taste so good?” he asks, mouth full. He may or may not be sniffing again.

“Could be the heartbreak,” Reggie says. “Or it could be the chocolate chips.”

* * *

Alex comes out as gay and gets no support from his parents. Reggie’s home life gets worse and worse. Luke runs away when his parents don’t stand behind his dreams. Things are bad, but they still have each other. Bobby offers them his garage as a safe space for both band rehearsal and to be themselves.

Three days after Luke got into that huge fight with his mom that still has his heart aching, Reggie gives him a detailed drawing of their band.

They’re drawn as stick figures (indistinguishable and for some reason two stick figures are holding hands but _which ones_? He can’t tell who’s who), standing outside the garage with all their instruments (though the guitars may have been modeled after balloons), watching what must be the sunrise (if the sun were a weird blob).

The whole scene is drawn within an unsuccessful attempt at a circle that could easily be mistaken for a heart.

For the first time since Luke ran away, his lips curve into a genuine smile.

Then Luke thinks, _oh_.

* * *

They go to the kitchen to get water bottles for themselves and Bobby and Alex who are still in the studio, and Reggie is chattering away, Luke watching him, happy to listen and let Reggie talk.

“Man, though, it’s so unfair,” he's saying. “You shouldn’t be allowed to be this good at the guitar and singing. Enough with the skills already, dude!”

Luke smiles brightly at the compliments. “Hey, thanks, but you know I’ve been playing guitar a long time. It’s not like I got good with it overnight, and—“

“Just accept the compliment!” Reggie says, exasperated. “I swear, sometimes you’re worse than—“

“You play guitar good, too!” Luke blurts out. “Bass guitar, I mean.”

Reggie stops talking, then grins. “Thanks. But it’s play _well_. I thought you were studying,” he teases.

Luke flounders. “Yeah, no, I really think so! And…and your voice!”

“My…voice?”

“Yeah! I like your voice. It’s really, uh, good. For singing.” Someone kill him.

Reggie is quiet, his face frustratingly blank, before he laughs and pats Luke on the back. “Thanks, man. Let’s get back to the others.”

Luke nods, the thought of rehearsal a welcome reprieve from this embarassment.

* * *

“Singing voice? I like your _singing voice_?” Luke mutters to himself later, pacing around in his room. “Unbelievable.”

He really is the worst at flirting.

…Doesn’t mean he’s going to stop, though.

* * *

“Bobby,” Luke says slowly. Bobby looks up from where he’s doodling on his physics homework. “You have experience with being rejected after hitting on someone, right?”

Bobby’s face sours. “Way to rub it in.”

“No, no, I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad!” Luke hastens to reassure. “Just—how do you deal with it? I mean, when you like someone. How do you…make them like you back?”

“Well, first of all, it depends on who you’re asking out. Some girls really mean no when they say no, and other girls like to be chased for a little while. It’s important to make the distinction, because you don’t want to be a creep.”

“It’s…a guy, actually,” Luke says after some hesitation.

“Oh.” Bobby blinks. “Okay. Well, same thing applies.”

“Yeah.” He grins because Bobby had been cool with Alex and he’s cool with him. “But what about when who you’re flirting with is just completely oblivious?”

Bobby’s eyes do that narrowing thing that feels really familiar from Alex, and Luke represses the urge to squirm under his gaze.

“Do I know this person?”

“Just answer the question,” he evades.

“Well,” Bobby says, smirking a little like he knows exactly who they’re talking about—he probably does, Luke thinks defeatedly. “You just have to keep getting more and more ridiculous with your attempts, until this person realizes that yes, you are flirting with him, get a clue already.”

Luke hesitates. “And do you think that I have a chance with…this person?”

Bobby rolls his eyes. “Okay, enough with the hypotheticals. Look, Reggie flirts with girls almost as much as I do, but I’ve also seen him get pretty flustered over a couple guys without realizing that it meant he could possibly like guys. I mean, it’s Reggie.”

The two share an exasperated look in solidarity.

“So just…do your thing,” Bobby advises. “Either he’ll catch on or he won’t, and if he doesn’t, you can always move on.”

“Yup, I’ll just…do that.” Easy for _Bobby_ to say. Still, it’s good advice. “Thanks, dude.”

Bobby’s attention returns to not doing his physics homework. “Whatever.” He’s smiling, though.

* * *

Fast forward the clock to when they’re dead but not gone, Luke is still following Bobby’s advice, even if Bobby’s an asshole who stole all his dead friend’s songs without giving any credit (seriously, not cool).

“I have chemistry with everybody that I sing with,” is Luke’s latest, literally serenading Reggie. Maybe music will get through to him, if nothing else.

“That was pretty hot.”

 _Finally_!

Familiar with Reggie’s brand of obliviousness, though, Luke ends it teasingly with pressing his fingers to his lips, kissing them, and pressing them to Reggie’s.

If that won’t get it through his thick skull, he doesn’t know what will.

* * *

Reggie figures something out after the Orpheum performance.

He had been hanging out with Julie when apparently, he suddenly bolted upright and shouted ‘I’m _BISEXUAL!’,_ which…tracks. Judging from the knowing look in both Reggie and Julie’s eyes, they also talked about _who_ made him realize that and about a crush Julie has.

“Thank you for telling me,” Luke says to Reggie when they’re alone, sitting on the couch of the studio. “I know how hard it can be.”

“You…do? But— you’re not— you don’t—“

“You mean, I don’t like boys?” Luke cuts through the spluttering that would be comical in a different situation. “No, I definitely do. I also like girls, though, just to clarify. I like people.”

“Oh. Yeah, of course. You like Julie,” he says so matter-of-factly that Luke can’t help but gape at him for a long moment before he pulls himself together.

“I do like her,” he says. “As a really good friend who helped make me a better songwriter. Not romantically.”

Reggie’s eyes widen before he laughs. “Well, that’s good, because Julie’s got this massive crush on Flynn, but don’t tell anyone I said that.”

“Obviously, she does.”

“Wait, you knew?”

“It’s pretty clear, dude. Everyone knows.” Luke once again laments the obliviousness of his friend. Reggie looks like he’s doing the same thing, which won’t do at all. Luke ruffles his hair. “Don’t worry, Reg, I just keep you around for your looks anyway.”

He smiles wryly. “I thought it was because I can play bass.”

He pretends to think about it, before settling on, “Little bit of both.”

“Okay, wow.” The two look up to see Alex standing at the entrance of the studio. “Could you lovebirds tone it down a little? This is our public space.”

“What? Oh, Alex, don’t make it weird,” Luke says, absently running his fingers through Reggie’s hair.

“How’d your mind even go there?” Reggie says, his head leaning on Luke’s shoulder.

Alex stares at them, before excessively shrugging. “Oh, I don’t know. Clearly I’m just crazy.”

“Clearly.”

Luke manages to keep a straight face, somehow, but that’s about the only thing he’s getting straight with the way Reggie’s stupidly pretty eyes are focused on him.

* * *

Julie and Flynn get together and because their ability to grab objects is pretty good now, Reggie and Luke decide to bake them something to commemorate it. They asked Alex to join, but he had plans with Willie and said next time.

Reggie asseses the contents of the Molina fridge. “No chocolate chips,” he says. “But we can make do with something else.”

Luke’s eyes widen. “Are you really… That’s—“

“Yeah.” Reggie grins. “Not for a breakup this time, though, so I guess it’s for the best.”

“Yeah,” Luke echoes, thinking about good matches and crudely drawn hearts. Realizes that maybe, just maybe…Reggie isn’t the only oblivious idiot in their band. Thinks maybe it’s about time both of them stop dancing around it.

They make a cake with sprinkles instead. When it’s in the oven, Luke blurts out, “Crooked Teeth. You thought it was about Alex.”

If Reggie’s surprised by the sudden question, he doesn’t show it. His face does go a little red, though. “Yeah, I mean— _wait_.”

Luke waits, patient, while Reggie mentally shifts through the song’s lyrics and comes to the same realization Luke did so many years ago.

“I never really thought about it again after I found out,” he mumbles. “You…” Luke nods. He swallows. “Do…do you still feel that way about me?”

“I do,” he says simply.

Reggie stares at him, pupils blown wide. “You like me.” He sounds absolutely shell-shocked.

Luke raises his eyebrows. “What are you going to do about it?”

Reggie kisses him.

He kisses him briefly and innocently, lingering for a beat and then pulling away. Still very close, he searches Luke’s eyes earnestly.

Luke grins. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Reggie says, laughing softly.

“You should kiss me again.”

Reggie does, and then his lips are suddenly hard and insistent, crowding him against the kitchen counter. The kiss has turned open mouth and desperately messy when Luke starts to smell something vaguely burning.

They both pull away at the same time, wide-eyed, simultaneously going, “The cake!”

They manage to salvage it.

* * *

“Well, it was about time,” Alex says. “My suffering is finally over.”

Luke rolls his eyes. “Okay, we weren’t that bad.”

“Yeah, tell that to me again knowing I had to sit through every time either of you wouldn’t shut up about the other one!”

“…Really?”

“Yeah, Reggie didn’t stop mentioning it for a _week_ that you liked his singing voice. It was always stuff like that.”He gives a long, desperate look that that speaks of years of pain and suffering. “The things I’ve seen and heard…”

Luke considers that, smiling. “I guess my flirting wasn’t that bad.”

“No, it’s terrible, you’re both terrible,” Alex insists.

“So are you,” Luke reminds him. “Mister We-Screamed-In-A-Museum.”

“At least it didn’t take me more than twenty-five years to get together with my crush.”

He’s got him, there.

Luke looks at Reggie talking with Julie in the distance, laughing with his head thrown back at something she’s saying, and smiles.


End file.
